30 Indian firms in Forbes' 2000

The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation leads 30 Indian companies which have found place on Forbes magazine's coveted list of top 2000 corporate titans across the world.

The Indian companies in oil and gas and banking sectors dominate the list that includes corporations from manufacturing, and software to utilities and telecommunications. ONGC occupies 265th position closely followed by State Bank of India group listed at 269th and Indian Oil at 273rd positions.

The rankings are based on four metrics: sales, profits, assets and market value. Citigroup tops the world list followed by General Electric, American Intl Group, Bank of America and HSBC group.

At the bottom of the listing for Indian corporations are Bharat Eelectricals (1,907), Ranbaxy Laboratories (1,936), Indian Overseas Bank (1,959), Hindelco Industries (1,982) and Larsen and Toubro just made the list at 1,996th position.

While Citigroup remains at the top for the second year, there was a lot of movement in the top ten this year.

ING Group debuted at nine this year, and strong entries from the banking and commodities sectors fill out the top ten, such as Bank of America at four and BP at number eight.

Twenty-four of the top 50 companies are based outside of the United States, spanning 52 countries and 27 different industries.

The Forbes Global 2000 boast a total sales of $22 trillion, with $1.3 trillion in total profits, total assets of $81 trillion and $27 trillion in market value.

Together, the companies employ 66 million people worldwide. A regional breakdown of corporate headquarters includes: 821 in North America; 544 in the Pacific Rim; 527 in Western Europe; 32 in South Asia; 30 in Eastern Europe; 26 in South America; 20 in Africa; and 9 in the Middle East.